Evolution of Graphic Design

 

The last ten years have been filled with emotions in the world of design! And since we've just entered a new decade, we've decided to take a little peek in the rearview mirror and take a closer look at the evolution of graphic design between 2010 and 2020.

A busy decade

It is December 31, 2009 and, as a graphic designer, you are responsible for welcoming brands into the next decade. You find yourself making predictions about what will happen in the 2010s (and you've probably drunk quite a bit of champagne already).

You claim that overpriced smartphones are going to disappear, and even that all "physical" devices are going to disappear, and that everyone will be using holographic screens. Typography will no longer matter since binary language will be king. Also, design schools will no longer need to be since we will be able to download all knowledge directly into our brains, as in Matrix.

And now that you're ten years older, you can't believe that person was you! Even if your predictions turned out to be completely off the mark, the 2010s were nonetheless full of twists and turns.

How design needs changed in the 2010s

While new technologies are always evolving, the 2010s literally changed everything and tested designers' abilities to adapt like never before. The following list highlights some of the most notable technological advances which have had a great influence on graphic design.

Smartphones

When we think of technological advances, we immediately think of smartphones. And what's more, how quickly you're supposed to switch devices. For designers, the advent of smartphones has meant a whole new creative space, much smaller than before. It also spawned new categories of designs and crafts.

If the iPhone appeared in 2007, it was Android that opened the decade in 2010, thus strengthening the existing market and crystallizing the place of these famous small devices in our lives. Smartphones have become more and more ubiquitous throughout the 2010s, especially with the advent of 4G in 2012 which made mobile internet use easier and faster. In 2016, the internet became more used from a phone than from a desktop computer.

The arrival of smartphones (and the deluge of mobile apps that come with it) opened up new possibilities in design, as it quickly became essential to create mobile apps and make websites responsive. Additionally, the fact that most people have started using their phones primarily to interact with the rest of the world has prompted graphic designers to have to create easy-to-read designs and clean, intuitive interfaces, paving the way for the trend. Minimalist.

Tablets & e-readers

Apple keeps a step ahead of its competitors and launches the iPad on the market in 2010 (and thus adds another new screen format to which graphic designers must adapt, especially to create responsive designs). And given the pace at which technology has developed over this decade, it was only a matter of time before books too succumbed to the digital age.

Although Kindle and its Kindle Direct Publishing program (which paved the way for self-publishing) had been launched in the previous decade, Amazon reports that ebook sales outpaced paper book sales for the first time. Times in 2010. In terms of design, the popularity of eBooks has profoundly changed the design of book covers, often requiring both a digital version and a paper version. This then led to the use of large-format typography and simplified images, so that book covers could be easily read even when they only appear tiny on a screen.

VR & AR

When VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) appeared in the 2010s, everyone had their eyes on the graphic designers who then had to find ways to make it easier to navigate in these new spaces. Immersive.

In 2014, Google Glass used augmented reality to integrate mobile application designs into our daily lives, although the price of these glasses would later lead Google to stop their production. In the middle of the 2010s, Snapchat democratized selfies and filters, and Instagram followed closely with the launch of “stories” in 2016. Although we may want to relegate these last two points to the rank of “entertainment”, it was these companies that made AR accessible to the general public, using graphic design, animation and real-time photography.

At that time, virtual reality (VR) was mostly the business of gaming companies. But the introduction on the market in 2014 of Google Cardboard led to the birth of a new discipline in VR mobile application design. In 2016, the launches of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive brought VR into our homes, onto our computer screens, leading to the birth of VR website design. In 2019, the first VR headset, Oculus Quest, hits the market ... And, as VR continues to grow, small revolutions are constantly occurring in UX design (user experience), as Graphic designers are doing their best to help users navigate these new spaces halfway between technology and the real world.

If some think that these advances are "the future" as we had imagined, others find on the contrary that they are still only pale attempts to use this technology. We will have to wait another decade to decide, but even if it turns out that the most skeptics were right, it will nevertheless remain certain that the 2010s were filled with completely crazy projects!

Evolution of the designer toolbox

With all these developments, graphic designers have had more and more work. And the tools that were available to them have naturally evolved too. Let's take a closer look at what has changed in this area during the 2010s.

Graphic design software

For a long time, the terms “graphic design software  " and "Adobe" were virtually synonymous with each other, especially since during the 2010s Adobe took all necessary steps to further strengthen this association. In 2011, Adobe changed its business model and launched the Creative Cloud.

Instead of having to buy software all at once, Adobe offered its users the option of paying a subscription to have access to all of its software, while emphasizing the integration of software with each other. Updates to this software were then made available on request. This was not to the liking of many graphic designers and to assuage their dissatisfaction as well as to justify the subscription fees, Adobe finally promised to update all software very frequently. Notable improvements that have been made over the decade include:

·         Content detection in Photoshop (2012)

·         Dynamic Angles in Illustrator (2014)

·         Perspective distortion and dynamic objects in Photoshop (2014)

·         Dynamic Shapes in Illustrator (2015)

·         Effects and Layer Styles in Photoshop (2015)

·         Curvature in Illustrator (2017)

This decade has also seen a number of competitors attempt to dislodge Adobe from its monopoly. In 2014, Serif launched Affinity Designer and directly challenged Adobe's subscription model, offering its software at a unique and affordable price. Procreate (2011), meanwhile, capitalized on the tablet market, turning iPads into portable digital drawing pads. Overall, designers of the 2010s were blessed with the choice of software and new features available. Above all, graphic design software has become more affordable and more widespread than ever.

Prototyping tools

To adapt to different screen sizes and the many product pages generated by digital technology and new technologies, prototyping applications have also had to evolve rapidly. Sketch was born in 2010, followed by Invision in 2011 and Adobe XD much later in 2017.

The interfaces of these applications are simple and lively. They allow you to prototype an application by dragging elements and thus obtain a prototype in no time. These tools have become so effective and popular that some designers even prefer to use Sketch than Photoshop to design the websites they are responsible for.

Graphic design goes digital

As we have seen, if graphic designers were already familiar with digital technology, they completely abandoned analog techniques during the 2010s, and went exclusively to digital. Between portfolios, personal websites of freelance workers or e-learning platforms, the 2010s saw many graphic designers install their studios directly in the “cloud”.

Self-taught graphic designers

The Internet has made all kinds of information immediately available with just a few clicks. And graphic design was no exception in this area. But, during this decade, it is above all the democratization of e-learning sites (online learning) that really marks the sector of activity, because everyone is getting started: the veterans of the profession, like novices.

 

Many mainstream schools, including MIT and Harvard, are also switching to online education with edX in 2012 and will be running in 2011. At the same time, new digital spaces dedicated to DIY e-learning are emerging, with udemy in 2010, and Skill share and General Assembly in 2011. All of this made learning and knowledge more accessible than ever, thus contributing to the emergence of many talents in the market.

Online freelancers

Even if social networks had already evolved a lot before 2010, they have grown significantly in the years that followed. Instagram entered the market in 2010, popularizing image-based networks, and attracted some 80 million users before being acquired by Facebook the following year.

 The designers to follow on Instagram

It was also in 2010 that Dribble became available (by invitation only) to the general public and thus allowed the most experienced graphic designers to differentiate themselves from others. Enhance also experienced a resurgence in popularity at that time, so much so that the platform was finally acquired by Adobe in 2012.

In the meantime, graphic designers have migrated their portfolios and workspace to the net. We started Projects 1-1 ourselves at that time, so as to provide professional designers with a collaborative and secure workspace. In short, graphic designers found new ways of working and making themselves known throughout the 2010s, not to mention the increased competition that goes with it.

Trends in graphic design of the 2010s

Later when people say "this design is very 2010s!" What exactly will they be referring to? It will be a few more years before we can really define the iconic style of this decade, but we still have a little idea of ​​what it will be:

Flat design

The flat design, no doubt one of the biggest trends of the decade, was born of the need to create mobile application designs accessible and uncluttered.

In 2012, Microsoft launched its new interface (Windows 8), followed closely the following year by Apple (iOS 7), preferring bright colors, geometric shapes and sans-serif font to skeuomorphism. And this has greatly helped to anchor flat design in our lives. Nowadays, flat design is everywhere: websites, commercial brochures, magazines, etc.

Interactive and animated branding

In the 2010s, branding is more versatile than ever. Not only did the places where your logo appear were multiplied, but in addition, these spaces being digital, they did not impose any constraints on the design of the logo itself. It is therefore understandable why animated and interactive logos emerged soon after.

Spotify's 2017 campaign, Year In Music, took advantage of the data and profiles of its users to create a branding that is highly “shareable” and that has contributed to the emergence of several trends: duotone, color transitions, and photographic filters.

Brand redesign

The 2010s were also year’s full of changes and twists and turns, with many startups claiming to be specialists in "disruptive technologies", that is to say at the forefront of innovation in their sector (and a good many of these claims have been proven to be correct). Even well-established brands have capitalized on this innovative and revolutionary spirit, resulting in more and more new brands and brand redesigns.

Startups were the most font of branding overhauls. Many startups went out with a temporary and rushed logo, which they then changed, once the hook of their project had taken. The redesign of the AirBnB logo in 2014 is a perfect example. Occupied followed in 2017, and even Google got involved in 2015 with a new animated logo.Uber loved the redesign so much that the company changed its logo twice, first in 2016 and then with a simplified version in 2018.

Unsurprisingly, long-established companies have finally decided to (finally!) Update their branding. Premier League presented its new mascot in 2016, and Burberry opted for a monogram (the company had never changed its logo since its creation 20 years ago).

If the logo redesigns have so to speak embodied the 2010s, one wonders if the 2020s will be symbolized by an opposing movement. If MasterCard's 2019 logo (which does not contain the brand name) is any indication of that, it looks like the trends are going even further in the minimalist direction over the next decade.

The evolution of graphic design between 2010 and 2020 - what now?

Everything that happened in the 2010s regarding graphic design now has no secrets for you (or almost). Now is the time to look back to the decade ahead and find out what lies ahead in the 2020s!

If you can remember a big trend that you think marked the 2010s, but which is not on this list, please let us know in the comments.

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